Do upconvert dvd players make widescreen movies fill up the screen on my 16:9 tv?

Question

I have an up-convert dvd player hooked up with an hdmi cable to my 16:9 tv if i play a movie thats widescreen will it fill up my screen or make the bars smaller without zooming in?

Answer 1

It'll depend on the movie if it fills the whole screen. A normal widescreen paper TV has an aspect ratio of 16:9, which is also known as 1.78:1. Widescreen movies usually have two different aspect ratios: 1.85:1, and 2.35:1. These aspect ratios will leave bars at both the top and bottom of the screen.

Therefore, the answer is no, upconverting DVD players will (usually) still show bars on the TV. However, there are two ways to get rid of bars. You can either zoom in on the screen, or stretch the picture. However, these techniques will either distort or crop the picture.

The main reason why movies on normal TVs/4:3 TVs are full screen, is because they are cropped; similar to zooming into the picture, cutting off the sides.

Also, 1.85:1 movies will have smaller black bars than movies shot with an aspect ratio of 2.35:1.